Happy 25th Anniversary: Lynch quits is your present?

Buy or Rent A Voyage To Twin Peaks at Amazon.Editors Note: This was written in the time when it was reported that Lynch quit. He has since come back, but I think it is nice to leave this up to remember what fans went through.

What a year it has been for Twin Peaks fans. When Laura Palmer told us that she would see us again in 25 years, we didn't know how true she was. We freaking got the deleted scenes! We got the series on Blu-Ray! We got all the Palmer's being interviewed by David Lynch. We got the news that the music would be released on vinyl records. We got the shocking news that the show was returning to television. Then we got BOBBED. David Lynch packed up his toys and went home.

On Easter Sunday as we were all holding our year's worth of chocolate bunnies in our hand, David Lynch came along and took them away from us. Yes, you got it. I am about to be critical of our hero, David Lynch. I know right now it is popular to pile on Showtime, but I am not sure that is where the blame should be. Let's go through how the story unfolded.

I found out the news from Kimmy (Lucy) Roberts' Facebook page. She posted: Dear Showtime....I hope you're happy. P.S. you really really suck. At first I also thought Showtime sucked. Give Lynch what he wants. The reason we were all happy about the return of Twin Peaks was because it had the support of Lynch and Mark Frost. Not just their support, but they were writing it and Lynch was directing it. On Easter Sunday Lynch let us know that the second coming was not going to happen. On his Facebook page he posted: Dear Facebook Friends, Showtime did not pull the plug on Twin Peaks. After 1 year and 4 months of negotiations, I left because not enough money was offered to do the script the way I felt it needed to be done. This weekend I started to call actors to let them know I would not be directing. Twin Peaks may still be very much alive at Showtime. I love the world of Twin Peaks and wish things could have worked out differently.

Immediately everyone wanted to boycott Showtime. They wanted to force them to give in to Lynch's demands. Slowly news leaked out that he was trying to get a bigger budget to film the show as he felt it needed to be done. That is fair. But I am not sure that using our hearts to get it is the right way to go. We have stuck with Twin Peaks for 25 years now. We have bought the series in at least 5 different formats. We bought every piece of music composed for the show. We bought posters, went to conventions and supported every book and movie Lynch ever put out. I bet even some of you sat through Inland Empire. Lynch owes us. And remember, it was him who told us it was coming back. It is not like we as fans did a letter writing campaign to Showtime and now Lynch won't join. Lynch said, it is coming back and I am directing it.

From the get go when this story mildly broke a month ago, I thought Lynch was using social media to increase his budget. I think that is a fine thing to do. Why not give a little teaser to get fans to tweet for him. This is more than that, this is quitting. I can't get behind that. He is a leader of a company. The actors need to work. This is going to be huge for some actors who haven't been in the forefront of the entrainment industry in 25 years. I think it is time for Lynch to compromise. Not his integrity, he made Eraserhead on a budget of three dollars and forty-five cents and we all own it and love it and study it. Money does not make a great movie. The major comic book movies prove that every summer. Story does. Compromise does. Art does. Mark Frost does.

Along time ago I said that I felt Mark Frost was just as important to Twin Peaks as Lynch. His silence is once again the loudest scream of the last 25 years. Frost has not tweeted a tweet. It makes me hope that this is all a ploy that Lynch has designed to use our love for their creation to get more money. That is a harsh thought, but I think it might be true. The Twin Peaks revival will be better if Lynch directs every episode. But I don't think the Twin Peaks revival will be better just because it has double the money to spend on each episode. I am pretty sure the budget that created Homeland and Dexter can tell the story of a missing FBI agent.

My sincere hope is that in a week this BOB nightmare will end. Lynch will say Showtime caved and he will bring all his lighting and equipment back to the play ground. If not, I will happily go on loving the show that I have loved for 25 years. I love episode 16 directed by Tim Hunter. Leland's death scene is one of the best scenes in the series. I love episode 7 directed by Mark Frost. Jacoby's heart attack is filmed with grace and style. Another director can film Twin Peaks. Let us not forget the scripts co-written by Lynch have been turned in. It is not like this won't be Lynch's Twin Peaks. I think Lynch might have seen the amount of work in front of him and got queazy. It would be the most work he has ever taken on in a career where he has not directed that many hours of anything, comparatively.
So if you are still with me, I want to wish you a happy 25. Its the fans that have kept Twin Peaks alive for 25 years. My love for it is still strong. My love for Mark Frost is higher than ever, as I await his novel about Twin Peaks. My love for Lynch is still there. But if he allows Twin Peaks to come back without him at the helm of AT LEAST the first episode, it will not be a corporation that I blame for that decision. It will be Lynch. This decision he is about to make will be his legacy. Of course, I will always respect and admire the man that filmed the best pilot ever placed on television 25 years ago today. It is just when I think of Lynch he will just be a little bit more Windom Earle to me and a little less Agent Cooper.

Scott Ryan is the co-host of The Red Room Podcast and the author of the comedy book: Scott Luck Stories